Falling PC sales hit hard by business cutbacks

Research house Gartner has poured fresh misery on the technology sector by revealing that PC sales in Europe have fallen for a second consecutive quarter.

Shipments of PCs fell 11 per cent compared to the same quarter of 2000 with the blame being laid at the doors of companies who have cancelled orders for new PCs or cut back on orders as a result of their own belt-tightening.

Although the previous quarter witnessed an overall decline in PC sales, businesses still bought more PCs than they had for the comparable quarter of 2000. However, businesses have now joined home-users in cutting back on buying new PCs in the current economic downturn increasing the extent of the decline. Shipments of new PCs were down 4.3 per cent to businesses and 10.7 per cent to home users.

Out of the manufacturers, only HP and Dell have remained reasonably untouched by the decline - with Dell registering a nominal increase in sales and HP remaining static.

PC manufacturers hoping the launch of XP would prove a lifeline will also find little solace in the Gartner report, with many companies saying they were not planning to upgrade their software and as such will not be looking to change their hardware either.

However, Gartner believes the current low represents the worst the sector will experience with growth set to pick up in 2002. Also with Christmas on the horizon and a traditional related boom in PC sales the beleaguered PC firms may yet find some winter tonic to the doom and gloom.